SOON AFTER THE Six-Day War in 1967, Avraham Infeld became the first Jewish Agency shaliah (community envoy) to be sent to the United States. Those were great times to be representing the Jewish state, he recalls.

“I watched as Israel became the unifying factor in the Jewish world,” says Infeld, a renowned Israeli educator who has devoted his life to advancing the concept of Jewish peoplehood.

He recently returned to his old stomping grounds for a lecture tour marking the 50th anniversary of the famous Israeli victory but was struck by how much the mood had changed.

“I found that Israel had become the most disunifying force in the Jewish community. Friends of mine who are rabbis tell me they can’t talk about Israel anymore, that their congregations don’t want to hear about it.”

A red line was crossed five months ago, Infeld says, when the Israeli government decided to renege on the Western Wall agreement.